Opinion: What Android needs to do to keep it's users happier than Apple's
No matter how avid a Droid fanboy one is, and I am not pretending to be, Google have sold their souls to phone manufacturers and network carriers. Today's Android ingredients would include the following:
1) Raw pure open source Google operating system, flavoured with well-intended goodness.2) Add a cup of Phone manufacturer widgets and 'crapware' to it, such as Samsung's UI and background-threaded memory intensive hogs.3) Finish off with an AT&T or Optus network-carrier set of widgets and useless apps.
What do you end up with? Something that is far from open source. Sure it is still more open than Apple but it isn't open. It's a relative term. In fact, if Apple decided to one day go open, it could do so with the switch of a button. The mere fact that their applications are separated from the operating system, sitting in their own sandboxes makes it easier to do so.
While I don't advocate Apple's policy not to be able to do more to integrate apps with the operating system, I do indeed support the notion of Google not allowing Motorola or HTC to add any non-removable UI. Any UI they add, should be able to be turned off. I don't mind adding a unique flavour to one's phone but it should not be forced onto. You already get the hardware and physical aesthetics that differentiate one's phone.
